1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a manufacturing method and a controlling method of an electronic device, and in particular, relates to a manufacturing method and a controlling method of an electronic device that has a capacitor having a capacitor insulating layer including nitrogen and silicon as a dielectric layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A capacitor is widely used in an electronic device. There is a capacitor that has an insulating layer including nitrogen and silicon such as a silicon nitride (SiN) layer or a silicon oxy-nitride (SiON) as a dielectric layer. This capacitor is, for example, formed on a compound semiconductor substrate, because the silicon nitride layer and the silicon oxy-nitride layer have a dielectric constant larger than that of a silicon oxide layer and these layers can be formed with a plasma CVD method at lower temperature. The capacitor is broken after a given time, when a voltage is applied to the capacitor.
As shown in Martin J. Brophy et al., “MIM's the Word—Capacitors for Fun and Profit”, Proc. 2003 GaAs MANTECH Conf., pp. 57-59, United State, the time till the capacitor is broken depends on a voltage applied to the capacitor. The capacitor is broken at short times when the voltage applied to the capacitor is high. The capacitor is broken at long times when the voltage applied to the capacitor is low. There is an initially defective capacitor because of a problem like a defect in the dielectric layer. The initially defective capacitor is broken at shorter times compared to a time till which the normal capacitor is broken. The capacitor may be subjected to a screening test where the capacitor is subjected to a voltage not causing a normal capacitor to be broken, in order to eliminate the initially defective capacitor.
There is a demand for elongating the time (lifetime) till the capacitor is broken (out of order) with an operating voltage.